A massive global child pornography ring that encouraged members to trawl popular social media sites to find and then trick boys in Australia, New Zealand and other nations to make sexually explicit videos of themselves has been smashed.
US authorities announced on Tuesday 14 American men have been charged, including 27-year-old alleged Louisiana-based ringleader Jonathan Johnson, but more arrests were expected around the globe.
Johnson operated two encrypted, member-only, websites that had 27,000 members and contained more than 2,000 videos, authorities alleged.
After infiltrating and then examining the videos, investigators identified 251 minors from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium and the US.
Boys were the main target, but of the 251 identified victims eight were girls.
"The majority of the victims of these heinous crimes were between the ages of 13 and 15 with two victims under the age of three," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh (Jeh) Johnson said.
"To date, 14 individuals have been arrested in connection with this investigation with additional arrests expected in the US and overseas."
The websites used Tor encryption software, registration and passwords in an attempt to elude authorities.
The websites also included tutorials to guide members on ways to communicate with minor boys, including posing as girls on social media sites, in order to coerce the boys into creating sexually explicit videos.
"Johnson frequently utilised and encouraged other members and uploaders to access popular social networking sites in order to search for and to locate unsuspecting minor boys for the purpose of having them create sexually explicit videos," the indictment against Johnson says.
"Johnson and other website members and uploaders created fictitious female Internet personas in order to initiate online communications with young boys.
"Johnson and other website members and uploaders coerced hundreds of minor boys to record themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct."
Authorities issued a warning to parents and guardians to educate children about the dangers of the internet.
"It reminds us parents, law enforcement and citizens must encourage safe online practices for children and report suspicious activity to the appropriate authorities, Johnson said.
